Tuesday, December 03, 2002
Kam’s Column - 03/12/02
Hello Again!
I have to say that I’m saddened that the fire strikes are still going ahead, I honestly hoped that the Government and the Union leaders would have come to some sort of amicable arrangement by now. However, I do wonder if the tides are starting to turn – I spotted a headline that read “Unions Turn On Gilchrist”, so maybe the members are revolting against their leadership.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to read the article as I was out shopping with Mandy and following her whirlwind expenditure around Tesco's…
In addition, the football news isn’t too heartening either – for Derby at least. However, our ever-friendly neighbours Forest are residing at number three in the table which is no mean feature. But the times they are achanging, (possibly) as I’ve heard on the wiring loom that Paul Hart is being poached by another club. Whether this results in a scramble to keep him, or a boiling away of Forest’s fortune we shall have to see.
One thing that we have noticed in the last week is a large number of people coming from quite a distance away to take advantage of our Stunner tyres. Plus more people have been able to experience them since the manufacturer has just given me another set to fit to another of our courtesy cars. So far, the Mondeo and now the Rover are equipped with them – and the Mondeo has done over 30,000 miles on one set! Of course, that is possible because we check the tyre pressures daily and the tracking on a regular basis and so have the optimum conditions – but it just shows that it can be done!
I did feel sorry for Mr Davenport (name changed to protect his innocence) on Saturday, which was possibly the rainiest day since rain was invented. His Rover 220 had decided to install the latest in luxury items – the one way electric window. Except that one way meant down only! He didn’t have a garage or any way of keeping the rain out of the car, so by the time it arrived at out workshop, it was a ‘little’ damp in the cabin. Before we did anything to the car we had to park it up in the workshop and let it dry out – a process that took three days!
I managed to get in there on Monday morning, finally, and began the job of stripping the door panels down and taking the mechanism out. What had happened was that the electric motor had been slowly passing its sell-by-date and had eventually expired. And, to make matters worse, because this wasn’t dealt with in a timely manner, the switch had burnt out too! Parts from Rover would have required at least Mr Davenport’s mother-in-law to be sold into slavery, so I got out my (key)board and went for a surf (I’m talking the Internet of course, but judging by the amount of water that’s been flowing down the road recently, a surf-board might not be such a bad idea…). Within minutes I had located an as-new window motor, regulator and switch assembly at a very good price from a breaker in Liverpool so, before placing the order I checked it with Mr Davenport – who was delighted to keep his mother-in-law out of the workhouse… The entire assembly arrived the next day and went in without any problems.
The next job I craftily managed to pass to Scott – Mr Spencer’s Renault Laguna was suffering from a lack of heating! Now this isn’t usually a problem, but Renaults are so tightly put together that it is a contortionist job to actually test the heater motor – nevermind get it out! The problem turned out to be linked to the rheostat – a device that controls the heater fan operation. After a summer of inactivity, the onrush of cold winter weather had shocked it into life and caused it to burn the fan out! Plus there was a section of really rather poor wiring down there that we had to deal with as well. In this instance, the parts from an as-new supplier were only a fraction cheaper than the brand new items, so I advised Mr Spencer to go for the new units.
The last electrical job in this series belonged to Mr Davis’s new Rover 620. Well, I say new – it was new to him as he’d only just bought it. The problem here was that the alarm wasn’t working and the central locking had packed up too! Once closer inspect, it turned out that the pin switches that controlled the alarm function were broken and corroded – the unit probably hadn’t worked for sometime! Once we had replaced the switches, not only did the alarm work at deafening volume (as ably demonstration by Shaun when he went to open the door without turning the alarm off first) but the central locking came back to life as well!
There’s another list of electrical jobs sitting in front of me waiting for my attention, oh the joy… Just a quick note about Christmas, regular readers – Kam will be open right through the festive season, only closing on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s day. So for all of your vehicle needs- we’ll be here!
Until next week,
Dr Kev Allen
PS, as I’m reading this through, a breakdown vehicle has just brought in a V6 3.0-litre Vauxhall Omega. It sounds like a timing belt job and Shaun’s looking at me quizzically
I have to say that I’m saddened that the fire strikes are still going ahead, I honestly hoped that the Government and the Union leaders would have come to some sort of amicable arrangement by now. However, I do wonder if the tides are starting to turn – I spotted a headline that read “Unions Turn On Gilchrist”, so maybe the members are revolting against their leadership.
Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to read the article as I was out shopping with Mandy and following her whirlwind expenditure around Tesco's…
In addition, the football news isn’t too heartening either – for Derby at least. However, our ever-friendly neighbours Forest are residing at number three in the table which is no mean feature. But the times they are achanging, (possibly) as I’ve heard on the wiring loom that Paul Hart is being poached by another club. Whether this results in a scramble to keep him, or a boiling away of Forest’s fortune we shall have to see.
One thing that we have noticed in the last week is a large number of people coming from quite a distance away to take advantage of our Stunner tyres. Plus more people have been able to experience them since the manufacturer has just given me another set to fit to another of our courtesy cars. So far, the Mondeo and now the Rover are equipped with them – and the Mondeo has done over 30,000 miles on one set! Of course, that is possible because we check the tyre pressures daily and the tracking on a regular basis and so have the optimum conditions – but it just shows that it can be done!
I did feel sorry for Mr Davenport (name changed to protect his innocence) on Saturday, which was possibly the rainiest day since rain was invented. His Rover 220 had decided to install the latest in luxury items – the one way electric window. Except that one way meant down only! He didn’t have a garage or any way of keeping the rain out of the car, so by the time it arrived at out workshop, it was a ‘little’ damp in the cabin. Before we did anything to the car we had to park it up in the workshop and let it dry out – a process that took three days!
I managed to get in there on Monday morning, finally, and began the job of stripping the door panels down and taking the mechanism out. What had happened was that the electric motor had been slowly passing its sell-by-date and had eventually expired. And, to make matters worse, because this wasn’t dealt with in a timely manner, the switch had burnt out too! Parts from Rover would have required at least Mr Davenport’s mother-in-law to be sold into slavery, so I got out my (key)board and went for a surf (I’m talking the Internet of course, but judging by the amount of water that’s been flowing down the road recently, a surf-board might not be such a bad idea…). Within minutes I had located an as-new window motor, regulator and switch assembly at a very good price from a breaker in Liverpool so, before placing the order I checked it with Mr Davenport – who was delighted to keep his mother-in-law out of the workhouse… The entire assembly arrived the next day and went in without any problems.
The next job I craftily managed to pass to Scott – Mr Spencer’s Renault Laguna was suffering from a lack of heating! Now this isn’t usually a problem, but Renaults are so tightly put together that it is a contortionist job to actually test the heater motor – nevermind get it out! The problem turned out to be linked to the rheostat – a device that controls the heater fan operation. After a summer of inactivity, the onrush of cold winter weather had shocked it into life and caused it to burn the fan out! Plus there was a section of really rather poor wiring down there that we had to deal with as well. In this instance, the parts from an as-new supplier were only a fraction cheaper than the brand new items, so I advised Mr Spencer to go for the new units.
The last electrical job in this series belonged to Mr Davis’s new Rover 620. Well, I say new – it was new to him as he’d only just bought it. The problem here was that the alarm wasn’t working and the central locking had packed up too! Once closer inspect, it turned out that the pin switches that controlled the alarm function were broken and corroded – the unit probably hadn’t worked for sometime! Once we had replaced the switches, not only did the alarm work at deafening volume (as ably demonstration by Shaun when he went to open the door without turning the alarm off first) but the central locking came back to life as well!
There’s another list of electrical jobs sitting in front of me waiting for my attention, oh the joy… Just a quick note about Christmas, regular readers – Kam will be open right through the festive season, only closing on Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year’s day. So for all of your vehicle needs- we’ll be here!
Until next week,
Dr Kev Allen
PS, as I’m reading this through, a breakdown vehicle has just brought in a V6 3.0-litre Vauxhall Omega. It sounds like a timing belt job and Shaun’s looking at me quizzically
